Category: Climate Change, Ecology and Livelihoods

Extraordinary tragedy in Kerala has brought into sharp focus the persistent, pervasive and profound neglect of drainage, waterbodies, conservation of catchment areas, excessive denudation of forest, and several other areas of resource management. With environmental clearance further relaxed by the Ministry of Forest and environment, such disasters are likely to recur more often and widely. The human deaths are most tragic but animal deaths are no less tragic. Let me enumerate the factors which are well known but needs restatement responsible for floods: having excessive rains in western ghat area is not extraordinary. In 1924, the rainfall was almost double but the loss was much less. Why has damage increased with less intense rainfall? The western ghats have been denuded and devastated with unbridled exploitation through mining. Gadgil Committee had suggested conservation measure which were ignored by everybody including civil society. His report was seen as anti-development. The chickens have come to roost now.

The damage in the catchment area can be easily seen through ISRO maps. The filling up of tanks and urban water bodies can also be mapped block by block through similar maps. The frequency of landslides, the turbidity of river water due to soil erosion and various other blockages of drainage can be mapped and quantified.

The point is clear: the persistent neglect of desilted tanks and cleaned up drainage channels is bound to precipitate floods with even lesser rain in future. This is a countrywide problem but Kerala is a special case because it receives already very heavy rainfall both at the time of onset and recession of monsoon.

The landslides and damage to the road are no less serious. Some of this will have a cascading effect. While rainfall cannot be managed, but its consequences can be. Post-flood several other adverse consequences for human, animal and environmental health are going to follow. The shallow water wells have been polluted by the flood, a lot of them will need cleaning and treatment. The carcass of animals which died due to floods will cause serious environmental and health problems. Collection of these carcasses and safe disposal would need a time-bound strategy. Use of DDT and such other persistent organic pollutants will be disastrous for the environment. They will further pollute the future generation through the breast milk of the mothers.

The damage to the buildings poses a challenge of disposing debris properly. The widely prevalent unfortunate practice of dumping waste in low lying areas will further clog the drainage channels. The floods will become more frequent.

The biodiversity in the western ghats helped in slowing down the flow of water and thus the rate of erosion. Higher the denudation and mining, greater the erosion and siltation of rivers and tanks and thus higher the overflow. The system of tanks all along the rivers acted as a buffer. Maharashtra recently witnessed hiring JCBs by self help groups and other NGOs to desilt the tanks before rain. The results have been extremely impressive. Kerala will have to create new rituals to take similar steps to ensure lesser fury of floods and minimal damage to property and people. Many infections will spread after flood and preventive medication for human and animal use are imperative. Rivers have dumped a lot of waste that we had put in them back into our backyards. Cleaning up of all these wastes without creating more problems requires careful thinking and application of technology and innovations in handling them.

The loss has been extraordinary and the Honey Bee Network expresses deep condolence to all the bereaved families. We feel equally sorry for the livestock and pets lost during flood. We will in fact be very disappointed if no lessons are learnt, no course correction takes place in the future policy of managing resources, drainage, conservation and sanitation. We are very optimistic that Kerala will show the way for the future transformation.

The author is founder of Honey Bee Network & visiting faculty at IIM-A

…The crisis is a timely reminder that climate change is expected to increase the frequency and magnitude of severe flooding across the world. Although no single flood can be linked directly to climate change, basic physics attests to the fact that a warmer world and atmosphere will hold more water, which will result in more intense and extreme rainfall…

The similarity is a network of dams in the “control of other States” surrounding both the States

…‘Flood-experienced’ Assam can learn a lesson from the Kerala deluge to avoid large-scale disaster, say water resources and ecology experts in the Northeast. The experts have found a similar pattern to recurrent floods in Assam – up to four times a year between April and October – and Kerala’s worst flood in 100 years that has claimed 357 lives so far.

The most worrying similarity is a network of dams in the “control of other States” surrounding Kerala and Assam.

“We have had Kerala-like floods albeit on a smaller scale because of hydropower projects in neighbouring States and in adjoining Bhutan. Assam has been rain-deficient by 30% this year, but Golaghat district experienced flash flood due to the release of excess water by the Doyang dam in Nagaland,” Partha Jyoti Das, a water resources specialist, told The Hindu…

…Arunachal Pradesh too is wary of the impact of big dams. “The river Siang (one of three that meet to form the Brahmaputra downstream) has suffered from dams and other constructions in China upstream,” Pasighat-based green activist Vijay Taram said…

…A recent European Commission report counted more than 2 crore (200 million) boreholes in India, up from tens of thousands in the 1960s. The water table is falling on average by 0.3 meters and by as much as 4 meters in some places. Some farmers in these parched states now need to dig 300 feet (91 meters) for water, compared to five feet (1.5 meters) in the 1960s, according to research by a local government scientist. They have been drilling wells deep beneath the tilled soil into the volcanic rock — 700 feet, 800 feet, even 900 feet down. Lately, though, many farmers drill wells and find nothing at all. In some severely affected areas, bore wells as deep as 500 meters (1,640 feet) have all gone dry. The underground water level has dropped so much that there is no water at all…

Forest dwellers and tribal communities may no longer play a key role in management of their forests as the new Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Rules dilute the powers of the Gram Sabhas (village councils).

As prime minister Malcolm Turnbull stepped down this week, he warned the ruling coalition had been captured by ideologues who made it tough to get any agreement on climate and energy policy. Roll on next year’s federal election.

On Monday, prime minister Turnbull had admittedhe could not get support in his party for electricity carbon targets, weak though the proposals were. By Friday, he had been ousted.

His successor, Scott Morrison, infamously brandished a lump of coal in parliament last year. He’s no tree-hugger.

It could have been worse for the climate. Morrison narrowly defeated a candidate, Peter Dutton, who raised the alarming prospect of Australia quitting the Paris Agreement. That risk has receded.

In 2012, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said we would need to produce 60% more food by 2050. FAO’s baseline was 2005-07: they meant 60% more than in 2005-07. We’ve increased production a lot since then. 1/

60% was a price-weighted-average of all foods, with much of the cereal growth being required for meat growth. The increased production of cereals was reckoned to be 46%. But since cereals have already grown by 24%, we’re a good part of the way there already. 2/

Many people are still saying that we need to increase food production by 60%, ignoring growth in production in the last decade. Hunter et al (2017) calculate that growth in cereal yield could actually slow down and we’d still reach the goal. http://bit.ly/2OQ5Cup 3/

FAO’s forecast is based primarily on growth in population and in improvement in living standards. That is, more people overall and more middle-class people, who will demand meat. 4/

By saying we ‘must’ increase food production by this much amounts to setting this as a hard constraint, a bottom line that over-rides other considerations. 5/

Hunter et al say this faulty interpretation of the forecasts “fosters a produce-at-all-costs mentality, which may exacerbate existing environmental challenges by increasing the use of fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, and tillage.” 6/6

(Interestingly, developed and developing countries today have similar rates of food waste, but for different reasons. Countries that become richer won’t necessarily reduce their food waste).

Based at Colombo, International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is a non-profit, scientific research organization focusing on the sustainable use of water and land resources in developing countries.

Whereas, Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) organised World Water Week (WWW – this year from 26-30 August), is a key annual focal point for discussion of global water issues. This year the theme is Water, ecosystems and human development.

In an attempt to reach beyond the walls of World Water Week and engage a wider water conscious audience, SIWI will be broadcasting a number of events live on Vimeo and Facebook throughout the week.

Management and restoration of mangroves is achievable and cost effective.

Mangroves are the best biological barriers to soften tsunamis and cyclones.

Solar Energy

India has embarked on an ambitious program to expand solar power plants to a total installed capacity of 100 GW by 2022.

Most people assume that electrical energy from a coal power plant is less expensive.

A scientific analysis by Mitavachan and Srinivasan shows that electrical power from solar plant is more affordable than power from coal. Further, it is observed that solar power is far better than power from coal when environmental extend such as global warming, air pollution and water footprint are considered. The study estimates that coal power plants emit 23 times more greenhouse gas emissions, cause 28 times more air pollution, consume 40 times more water and lead to 15 times more external costs to society than solar power plants in India. (Divecha Centre of Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science)

IITM (Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology), Pune scientists coined a new term — mini-cloud bursts, defined as rainfall in excess of 50 mm in 2 consecutive hrs. Based on hourly rainfall data from 126 stations between 1969-2015, researchers found ~200 mini-cloud bursts occurring every year in India.

The Centre for Policy Research (CPR)-Namati Environmental Justice Program in partnership with Janabhivyakti and Hasdeo Arand Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (HABSS) highlight the process and findings of an exercise where the representatives of a community affected by mining tried to understand whether the impacts of dust pollution, water contamination and felling of trees faced by them were arising out of the non-compliance of law.

They systematically collected evidence and filed well drafted complaints to the concerned institutions who could affect remedies. As the final report establishes, this process led to positive official remedies in some cases. In others, the follow up is ongoing.

There are five key factors of the rural situation on the ground that may be seen as common across the ruin of all government schemes.

The first is a large and chronic deficit in the revenue streams of a bulk of rural households. This deficit arises from many factors. Three of the major ones are uncertain and depressed farm incomes, high cost of receiving health services, and highly unsuitable social customs of marriage and death ceremonies.

The second is disempowerment of women and widespread prevalence of irresponsible behavior of men who tend to ignore their family responsibilities and blow up money (as well as incur debts) on liquor. I am not a teetotaler, but I can in no way sympathize with a man who snatches money from his wife, and hence food from his kids, to get drunk.

The third is unstable leadership, weak administrative systems and human resource in development administration in general and particularly at the cutting edge of governance through Panchayati Raj institutions in villages.

Caste Class Power Nexus

The fourth is the infamous caste-class-power nexus, which renders most program implementation vulnerable to hijack through the unholy conspiracy among the rural elite to the detriment of the rural poor and finally, lax oversight and soft mechanisms to check and to correct inappropriate program implementation.

While the first two factors are about household matters — patriarchal culture, the grip of old obscurantist beliefs and irresponsible hedonism of men, the last three factors deal with the prevalence and perpetuation of socio-political order. This perpetuation of the socio-political order renders chances of meaningful reform and development reaching the poor to near zero. Where well-meaning local leaders like Anna Hazare or Popatrao Pawar can devise smart mechanisms to counter the last three factors, rural situations show much improvement.

What follows is the depiction of the scenario of the central and eastern states, where governance levels have been traditionally poor. I am told that the situation in Tamil Nadu and Kerala is much better but have no concrete evidence to assert that.

The general course of events and developments is somewhat as follows. The chronic and large revenue deficit of poor households made much worse by avoidable expenditure and debt incurred by men on alcohol; renders them indebted, subordinate and vulnerable to the local rural elite (shopkeepers, traders, school teachers and others with regular cash flows, large farmers and local political heavyweights).

Exploitative gatekeepers

This elite becomes the gatekeeper of all development exploiting the caste-class-power nexus to the hilt. Its earthy ingenuity enables it to defeat every possible mechanism chosen by the designers of the scheme to reach the poor. For examples, MNREGA required job cards to be given to the poor. The elite group ensures that the poor have got to keep their cards with the contractor and then feel satisfied with such crumbs of MNREGA wages as the elite thinks necessary to keep them the poor alive.

Jandhan and DBT have in turn found the elite forcing the poor keep their passbooks and Rupay cards where given and withdrawal slips with their thumb impressions with them so whatever is deposited can be syphoned off perfectly legally. The ration-shop dealer confiscates and keeps all ration cards of the poor with him. The agro-service Centre dealer has a cupboard full of original land ownership documents in his possession to rip the poor household of the benefit of any debt waiver or insurance payment or the subsidy under any other scheme.

The first ever Nagaland Biodiversity Meet was organised from 9 to 16 May 2018 to document the biodiversity of Tizu Valley Biodiversity Conservation and Livelihood Network, comprising the villages of Sukhai, Ghukhuyi and Kivikhu in Zunheboto District, and promote ecotourism in the area. Faunal surveys prior to the Biodiversity Meet resulted in a checklist of 212 species of birds, 155 species of butterflies and more than 200 species of moths. The multitude of floral and faunal species existing in these areas makes rich contributions to the biodiversity of the state. Documentation of these records will help boost nature-based ecotourism for the state, thus contributing to its revenue. The records of birds, butterflies and moths would be shared through Biodiversity Atlas – India .

The Sevoke-Rangpo railway project will reportedly affect over 40,000 people in Sikkim and West Bengal. However, only 26 families have been identified as being impacted by the project and many have refused compensation, asking for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act and standard compensation.

It’s a shame that when salaries of people’s representatives from Rs 75,000 per month to Rs 1.5 lakh and their personal assistants enjoyed a bump in their wages, from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000, no thought was spared for tribal girls who continue to get Re. 1 as daily allowance. No wonder that the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes has sought better compensation for tribals.

Shri P. Sainath of People’s Archives of Rural India (PARI) presents 7 songs that showcase the music of Chattisgarh’s Adivasi communities, caught in decades of violent conflict. It is a music of resilience – their songs speak about the beauty of their land and forests; their daily lives and their reverence for nature.

Wasted Opportunity

Continued government reluctance to put construction projects through a robust environmental approval process and the exemption from public scrutiny awarded to massive urban real estate projects means that we have put aside a good opportunity to make “redevelopment” different from development.

In 2006.. the MOEFCC officials made a special presentation to the PMO arguing that the real estate sector deserves environmental scrutiny for impacts on energy, water, sewage and urban infrastructure. They were included but with leniency in the documentation and appraisal process.

Mumbai Monsoon Flooding

The Advanced Locality Management (ALM) in the area — a community organisation born out of a very interesting concept introduced in 1997 by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). The original intent behind creating these areas / neighbourhoods with Advanced Locality Management was to identify localities, and get residents to commit themselves to improving the quality of life in those, in close co-operation with the MCGM.